by Fr Scott Homer
A headline in the Christian Science Monitor on Sat, Feb. 25th reads, "Syrians in Homs feel abandoned by world." As well they should. They have been abandoned by the world and as a consequence a fascist regime murders its people with impunity. It smacks of 1930s Germany and the Third Reich when Great Britian and the United States and the rest of Europe watched as Hitler began systematically slaughtering ethnic undesirables, social activists, and people deemed unworthy of life by the state.
I don't believe that America should be the policeman for the world but I do think we have a moral and ethical responsibility to act when an oppressive regime begins the mass slaughter of civilians. Surely we can agree that people have a right to life if none other.
We don't seem to struggle with taking decisive action when our economic interests are at stake, like we have in Afghanistan and Iraq. Why is it we struggle to take action when we do not see an opportunity for personal gain, like in Rwanda a few years ago or in Syria today?
